WJPA Sports

PHOENIX (AP) — Paul Skenes struck out the side in the eighth inning, throwing a nasty splitter past Gabriel Moreno on his 97th and final pitch of the evening before smacking his glove in approval as he walked back to the dugout. The defending National League Cy Young winner is starting to heat up. The 23-year-old right-hander threw eight innings of two-hit ball on Wednesday night, leading the Pirates to a 1-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in a stellar performance that was among the best of his career. It was the second time in the past three outings that Skenes has been at his best. He took a perfect game into the seventh inning of a 6-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on April 24.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Ryan McLeod scored on consecutive power-play opportunities in reviving Buffalo’s anemic special-teams unit, and the Sabres defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series. Josh Doan and Jordan Greenway also scored for Buffalo making its first second-round appearance since 2007, and first overall in 15 years. Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach scored for Montreal, which appeared slow to find its legs three days after defeating Tampa Bay in Game 7 of its first-round series. Jakub Dobes finished with 12 saves. Buffalo hosts Game 2 on Friday night.

Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo will not run in the Preakness Stakes next weekend. Trainer Cherie DeVaux announced the plan to skip the Preakness and set sights on the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York. Golden Tempo is the third Derby winner in the past five years not to be entered in the Preakness. For various reasons, it is the sixth time in eight years the Preakness will happen with no chance of a Triple Crown on the line. American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018 are the only horses to sweep all three races over the past four decades.